Blind date dating show

), the new series of Blind Date is promising a return to a simpler time when potential lovebirds met face to face – well, except for that big screen between them – and relied on real-life chemistry, charisma and lashings of innuendo to spark a romance (or not).

The news was first reported by TV trade magazine Broadcast and The Sun. "Blind Date" will be produced by So Television, the company co-owned by Graham Norton, which makes BBC1's "The Graham Norton Show." Northern Irish firm Stellify Media is co-producing.

The producers will remain faithful to much of the original format, which involved a singleton asking three questions of three potential dates sitting the other side of a retractable wall.

And gentlemen, it can help you too, give it a chance.

but it was eventually hosted by Cilla Black, who already hosted the LWT series, Surprise Surprise.

Hosted by Paul O'Grady, stepping into the shoes of his dear departed friend original host Cilla Black, the show is said to have "been updated for the 21st century" but employs the same basic format and aims to retain "the humour, charm and cheekiness of the original show".

The Sun speculated on who might host the Channel 5 version.

Everyone can relate to the experience of a first date: the promise of potential love when it goes well and the hilariously awkward moments if it crashes and burns.

In what would be a bland concept, it is helped along by many different post-production inserts: thought bubbles, lower-third keys with comments from "outside observers", and cartoonish characters and assorted things appearing on screen from nowhere.

It's all hilarious, and exactly what we the viewers are thinking when you look at the daters.